After 17 years at Blizzard, with long and careful contemplation, I have made a difficult and bittersweet but ultimately exciting decision to pursue the next chapter in my life and career.

Before I even joined Blizzard, I was already a huge fan of the company and its games. In particular, I was extremely passionate about the emerging genre of real-time strategy games. It was a dream come true when I was given the opportunity to work on StarCraft, which at the time was being created by a very small team by today’s standards. It was tremendously fulfilling to get to know everyone on the team personally and to contribute our energies toward a shared goal in such a creative and engaging environment.

Blizzard Entertainment has been simply the best place in the world to be a game designer. The best aspect of designing games at Blizzard is that the entire company is passionate about the gameplay within each and every product. From the executive team to customer service to our global offices, every single person is a player and contributes to making the best possible games. It’s for very good reason that the first credit on every Blizzard game is “Game Design by Blizzard Entertainment.”

I’m really proud of the contributions I was able to make to Blizzard’s accomplishments. From building lasting games, to supporting the growth of eSports, to extending the Warcraft world into a feature film, and of course to being able to celebrate our shared passions with the Blizzard community online and at BlizzCon.

The Blizzard community is ultimately the reason why we come to work every day and pour our souls into every world and experience we create. Blizzard’s players are the most passionate in the world and your commitment and dedication are truly awesome to behold. Creating entertainment for you has been an incredible opportunity, and I know that you will continue to grow and become even stronger as a community over the years to come. It has been so meaningful on a personal level to help create joy for all of you.

I’m looking forward to new challenges in my career, but I will always cherish the time I spent with you all and the amazing and collaborative teams at Blizzard. It was both satisfying and humbling, and it made me a better developer and a better person. I look forward to playing Blizzard games as a player for many years to come. Most important, now I have plenty of time to learn how to build a competitive Hearthstone deck.

As to what I will be doing next, I don’t have an answer for you yet . . . but I will “when it’s ready.” My priorities are to enjoy the summer with my family, play plenty of games, and think about what’s next. The game industry is such an exciting place right now with PC gaming thriving, the new consoles, mobile games, and virtual reality becoming an actual reality. It’s like having an empty quest log and going into a new zone for the first time.

In the past, I haven’t been the most avid Twitter user, but I’ll strive to do better and keep you updated there—@Rob_Pardo. Please stay in touch!

One way to determine if your argument holds water is to flip the point of view and see where it lands. Like this:

"I don't agree with adding heterosexual male characters or storylines purely for the sake of pushing boundaries or getting respect from male fanboi gamers. If Blizzard sees fit to add a male heterosexual character, I trust them to do so in a way that fits logically into the story, and I would enjoy experiencing such a story. I get enough of the male heterosexual dominant culture shoved down my throat as it is so if WoW is going to give me the same business it better be palatable."

So what did we learn about the original argument from this exercise?

1. It assumes that Male Heterosexual characters are the default value.
2. It assumes that only having male heterosexual characters is somehow a "neutral" value, rather than affirming a particular world view (in this case that only male heterosexual's are important and have stories anyone would be interested in).
3. It's naively at odds with the real world (50% of which are women)

Originally Posted by Lolercaust

I have no idea what you're trying to communicate here.

Obviously. And that's one of those things that makes me sad. Again, I think the views you express here, and your inability to see outside of your own point of view are exactly the issue with Blizzard's corporate culture right now.

Look, Blizzard isn't alone here. I'm not trying to single them out. And corporate culture goes bad for a lot of reasons, and in a lot of ways (sometimes it's just complacent, sometimes it's a mess of fiefdoms, sometimes it's a blame culture). But they're the big dog in the MMO world, and a huge player in the overall game market. And they happen to make a game that I love, but am falling out of love with it's developer's attitude on women.

So sometimes you can't change the attitudes at the top, so you have to show them the door. . .

If you're having that much trouble restraining yourself you could always send a PM.

That wouldn't be lucrative. You've demonstrated my "tight ship" point. I do think you are being a contrarian, and only because of the content. Narrow-minded, yes. Continuing to illustrate how absurdly misplaced your obstinate stance is would be a waste of both our time and energy. Carry on the good fight against "the agenda".

That wouldn't be lucrative. You've demonstrated my "tight ship" point. I do think you are being a contrarian, and only because of the content. Narrow-minded, yes. Continuing to illustrate how absurdly misplaced your obstinate stance is would be a waste of both our time and energy. Carry on the good fight against "the agenda".

What would it look like if I wasn't narrow-minded and still didn't agree with you? Or am I narrow-minded simply because I don't agree with you?
I'm not trying to halt the advance of the LGBTQ cause; I've indirectly helped in furthering it by supporting the normalization of LGBTQ in our culture.
But there are some things I simply find more important.

What would it look like if I wasn't narrow-minded and still didn't agree with you? Or am I narrow-minded simply because I don't agree with you?
I'm not trying to halt the advance of the LGBTQ cause; I've indirectly helped in furthering it by supporting the normalization of LGBTQ in our culture.
But there are some things I simply find more important.

If you weren't narrow minded, you wouldn't be so silly as to prop up some sort of imaginary grand artistic vision that would somehow come crumbling with the inclusion of some random side quests or NPCs. This is Blizzard we're talking about here. If there is one thing the community at large can agree on, it's how disposable the lore has been. And it's hard to take your noble claims seriously when you've already stated the LGBT is "shoved down your throat", and how they're promoting some sort of "agenda". It makes it looks more like you're just hiding under a "free expression" banner rather than admit you're just against putting that content in because you're sick of it.

No one really cares about your sexuality, only you do. I'd play the fuck out of a game with a bunch of gay men or only gay men characters if it was fucking awesome. I wouldn't ask for there to be straight men. It wouldn't make sense, if the Universe was consistent to it's writing.

World of Warcraft is a fictional Universe. LGBT's don't have to exist in a fictional Universe, quit projecting your own struggles into a video game and is FICTIONAL Universe. Which is what Rob Pardo was saying.

"Blizzard's senior vice president of game design, Rob Pardo, has said players would feel "betrayed" if a micro-transaction system, of the sort common in free-to-play MMO games, was implemented in World of Warcraft."
Even the old dev's were against the cash-shop Actiblizzard decided to implement. No wonder he left. The only people left playing the game are the ones who think it's okay to have no content for a year and happily pay subscribtion fee for them to design more store mounts and pets (and patches that require you to pay another fee to get, except they call them "expansions")

How about not trying to imply gay people are merely sexual entities. How about the mere mention of a wife is, in most cases, an explicit description of heterosexuality. Oh, no married couples in wow? No hetero consorts? Right.

It's pretty amazing how numb straight white kids are to the realities of the world abd just how much of your experience is explicitly tied to your way of life at the expense of others.

"Blizzard's senior vice president of game design, Rob Pardo, has said players would feel "betrayed" if a micro-transaction system, of the sort common in free-to-play MMO games, was implemented in World of Warcraft."
Even the old dev's were against the cash-shop Actiblizzard decided to implement. No wonder he left.

A bit late for that, considering it started directly over 5 years ago (and even sooner with the TCG and promo items).

- - - Updated - - -

Originally Posted by Jokerfiend

No one really cares about your sexuality, only you do. I'd play the fuck out of a game with a bunch of gay men or only gay men characters if it was fucking awesome. I wouldn't ask for there to be straight men. It wouldn't make sense, if the Universe was consistent to it's writing.

World of Warcraft is a fictional Universe. LGBT's don't have to exist in a fictional Universe, quit projecting your own struggles into a video game and is FICTIONAL Universe. Which is what Rob Pardo was saying.

But you know it'll never happen. Having some variety in character and more more inclusive is possible and easy to do. There's no excuse not to do it, unless you have a 'moral' reason.